Adolf Heyduk

Adolf Heyduk (6 June 1835 – 6 February 1923) was a distinguished Czech poet and writer, a representative of the May School.

The most widely performed is the poignant and tender Songs My Mother Taught Me with its hauntingly exquisite setting, included in the repertoire of many instrumentalists and vocalists.

However she died before the baptism and this tragic event inspired Neruda to write Children Ballads.

Adolf Heyduk was the only important poet of Neruda's generation who lived to see an independent Czechoslovak state.

In 1920, on the occasion of his 85th birthday, he was personally visited by the president of Czechoslovakia Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk at his apartment in Písek.